Outlook for Android

If users in your company are using Outlook on phones running an older version of Android, they will no longer be able to update to newer versions of Outlook.

Background

The evolution of Outlook began in 1996 when Hotmail was first launched. It was acquired by Microsoft the following year for $400,000 and rebranded ‘MSN Hotmail’. In 2005 the name was changed again to ‘Windows Live Hotmail’ before being known as simply ‘Outlook’ from 2012 onward.

Launched in 2008, Android has been the world’s best-selling smartphone operating system since 2011. It has over three billion monthly active users and the Google Play Store boasts over 3 million apps.

Changes afoot

Soon, Outlook for Android will no longer support Android 7.1 or below. This means that users will need to upgrade their Android operating system to at least Android 8.0 by 23rd May 2022.

If users in your company are using Outlook on phones running an older version of Android, they will no longer be able to update to newer versions of Outlook when this change is implemented (although other mail apps may still work).

Smartphone management

Despite Android 8.0 (often referred to as ‘Oreo’) being released in August 2017, many people are still not using it – according to Android Police, 17.3% of Android users are still running Android 7.1 or older.

At the moment, there is no standard for how long Android phones will receive security updates – although the biggest players, such as Google and Samsung, have committed to at least 4 years of updates.

If you have employees with smartphones running older operating system versions (think 5 years for iPhone and 3 years for Android), then you should be looking at your smartphone management as these older operating systems will not be receiving the latest security updates and putting your data at risk.

For help and advice, contact Itek to discuss your needs.